Cold Static Studios - RetroTextureLab — PBR to Retro Texture Baker

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RetroTextureLab — PBR to Retro Texture Baker

Turn modern PBR textures into retro game art, directly inside Unreal Engine 5!

RetroTextureLab is an Unreal Engine editor plugin that combines modern PBR texture information into one baked, retro-style color texture.

Whether you’re making a PS1-inspired horror game, a retro adventure, or experimenting with low-resolution visuals, RetroTextureLab gives you direct control over the final look.

:white_check_mark: Features

  • PBR Texture Baking — Combine Base Color, Normal, Roughness, Metallic and Ambient Occlusion information into a single color texture.

  • Packed ORM Support — Supports packed textures using R = AO, G = Roughness and B = Metallic.

  • Adjustable Lighting — Control light direction, ambient and diffuse strength, and material influences.

  • Retro Resolution Control — Generate textures from 32 × 32 up to 512 × 512.

  • Color Reduction — Adjust color depth from 1 to 8 bits per channel.

  • Dithering Options — Ordered, Floyd–Steinberg, or no dithering.

  • Texture Filtering — Nearest Neighbor and Bilinear.

  • Built-in Presets — Classic PS1, Gritty Horror and Colorful.

  • Live Comparison Previews — View the baked PBR result alongside the retro output.

  • Direct Texture Export — Save the generated Texture2D directly into your Unreal project.

  • Blueprint & C++ Compatible — Works in both Blueprint-only and C++ projects.

:artist_palette: Create Your Own Retro Style

Go beyond simply resizing a texture.

Experiment with pixelation, color depth, dithering, material response and baked lighting to create a look that fits your project.

From gritty, muted horror environments to colorful retro worlds, the settings are yours to adjust.

:open_book: Documentation

Installation instructions, feature explanations, supported texture formats and technical limitations are included with the plugin.

:gear: Compatibility

  • Unreal Engine: 5.8

  • Tested with: UE 5.8.4

  • Platform: Windows (Win64)

  • Project types: Blueprint-only and C++

  • Plugin type: Editor-only

  • Version: 0.9.0

:rocket: Future Updates

RetroTextureLab 0.9.0 is the first public version of the plugin, with more planned for the future.

I plan to continue improving RetroTextureLab with additional customization options, new retro-processing features, workflow improvements and more ways to control your textures.

This is just the beginning. Feedback and suggestions from users will help shape future updates.

Future features are planned, not guaranteed, and may change as development continues.

:warning: Before You Buy

RetroTextureLab is a texture baking tool, not a real-time PSX shader or complete material-generation system.

The plugin produces one stylized baked color texture from supported PBR inputs. It does not generate separate retro normal, roughness or metallic textures.

Texture input support depends on the imported source format and encoding. The plugin supports selected 8-bit formats, with additional restrictions for normal maps. HDR, floating-point and 16-bit source formats are not supported.

Large input textures are processed using working buffers limited to 1024 pixels on their longest side. Final exported textures are limited to 512 × 512.

The plugin does not automatically create Unreal materials.

Assets shown in promotional images are for demonstration purposes only and are not included with RetroTextureLab.

Developed by Cold Static Studios.